A Pricey Christmas Catastrophe
by Pricefield4Evev
Summary: Max and Chloe's holiday traditions couldn't be anymore different from one another's. Max's traditions being all about family. Chloe's being much more lonesome. One day, Max's family arrives to take her back to Seattle for Christmas, leaving Chloe all alone. In a moment of sadness, Chloe wishes Max could experience what her Christmas has been like for the last 5 years.
1. Waking Nightmare

It was a snowy day one late afternoon in December and all of the Blackwell academy students were happily rushing out of the dorms and heading in a dashing herd towards the front courtyard, suitcases and baggage in tow, now on their Christmas break.

All were running to meet up with a very large group of parents waiting by the Blackwell statue and fountain, just outside the front entrance. Each pair of parents searching for the faces of their children.

One by one, many of the students met up and exchanged happy hugs and greetings with their mothers and fathers. Then they were lead to the parking lot as a family, ready to spend Christmas holidays together.

Trailing at the back of the crowd of students were Max and Chloe. Max, bundled up in a blue parka, black scarf and matching beanie that Chloe wore, was dragging a large suit case behind her, full of clothes and other belongings from her dorm room. Chloe, dressed in a black parka, white scarf and her signature beanie, was carrying a smaller backpack that also held more of Max's stuff.

Max's parents weren't there just yet, as they had to drive in all the way from Seattle. So Max and Chloe took up a seating position on the stairs leading up to the school from the street, near the water fountain.

As they sat and waited together, Chloe patted Max on the shoulder, "It's a shame that you're leaving for the holidays. I'm sure going to miss you." said Chloe with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Sorry, Chloe," replied Max ashamedly, "But my folks want me to come home and spend Christmas in Seattle. We've got family coming in from all over as well. I just couldn't break away."

Chloe nodded, "I understand… I mean, you've been doing the same thing for the past 5 years, just staying in Seattle and not coming back to Arcadia Bay for Christmas… Not sure why I thought this year would be any different."

Max could hear the hurt in Chloe's voice, so she quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket and raised it up and began to type a text, "Alright, just give me a moment and I'll ask my folks if I can stay here."

But Chloe put her hand on top of Max's phone and pushed it back down, "Don't worry about it," Chloe replied, "Besides, I've got my own plans this Christmas."

"You're sure? I mean it's no trouble for me to-"

"It's fine, Max!" Chloe snapped, causing Max to jump in surprise. Chloe closed her eyes, rubbed them with her right hand and sighed "I've survived five Christmas's without you, so six won't be a problem."

"I'm sorry, Chloe…" Max apologized, "Next year will be different. I swear it, Chloe."

Just then, Max's parents jeep pulled up to the curve. Max quickly got up and ran up to her mom and dad as they climbed out and made their way over to her.

They then embraced in a happy three way hug and exchanged cheek kisses as well. Chloe's heart hurt at the sight, remembering that's what her family, Joyce and William Price, used to do.

Max then turned back to Chloe, "Mom! Dad! You remember Chloe Price, right?" She introduced with a gesture of her hand towards Chloe.

Chloe stood up and walked over to them, and gave her head a slight bow. "What's up, Mr and Mrs Caulfield! Hella long time, no see, eh?"

"Hella?" Mrs. Caulfield asked.

"Nothing, just something I picked up from… An old friend of mine." Chloe answered back.

"Well, it's great to see you again either way!" Mr. Caulfield replied cheerfully, he then gave her a look over. "You… Well, you've… Uh…"

Both he and his wife were stammering and at a loss for words as what to say. This being the first time they've seen her since the move.

"I know. Max had the exact same reaction the first time she saw me as well," replied Chloe, "I know I look a lot different than I did before your move. But I'm still the same little brat I always was, believe me."

They both smiled, then turned back to Max, "Come now, Max, we've got a long drive ahead of us," advised Max's mom, while her dad walked over and retrieved Max's luggage and backpack and brought them to the jeep. "We best get back to Seattle before the rest of the family arrives."

"Alright, Mom," said Max, looking back at Chloe once more. "I'll be there in a moment. I just have to say goodbye to Chloe."

And she jogged back to Chloe's side, "Sorry, Chloe, but I have to go now."

"Yeah. Yeah, I understand. Have fun, and I'll see you after Christmas break." Chloe responded, rubbing her foot into the snow and looking away.

"Don't worry, Chloe. Christmas break will be over before you know it!"

"Yeah, right…" Chloe said under her breath.

Max leaned in closer, straining to hear, "What?"

Chloe shook her head, "Nothing, Max! I just wish-" But she stopped herself from saying anymore.

"You what?" Max inquired.

"Never Mind. Your folks are waiting for you, so just go." Chloe insisted.

Then, without thinking, Max took Chloe by the shoulder and pulled her in for a goodbye kiss. But Chloe quickly raised her hand and put the tips of her index and middle fingers over Max's lips and pushed her away.

"Your folks are watching!" Chloe cautioned.

"Sorry, force of habit!" Max quickly replied, and instead pulled her in for a hug. It was true that neither Max, nor Chloe had revealed the true nature of their relationship to their parents. And was one of the reasons neither was going to spend Christmas with the others family. As it might then have to be revealed and explained.

Max's dad then honked the horn impatiently and tapped his watch a few times.

"Coming, Dad!" Max shouted, she then turned back to Chloe, "See you when I get back!"

"Yeah, see you…" Chloe glumly replied, and Max began to jog back to the jeep.

"And Max Caulfield!" Chloe called out, "Don't you forget about me!"

"Never!" Max answered back.

Chloe then watched Max get into the rear of the Jeep, then depart from the school grounds with her parents as they headed back to Seattle.

Chloe signed sadly and then made her way back over to her own truck in the parking lot, got in and then headed home. Along the way she finished the thought she had before.

"I just wish… You could see what my Christmas is really like, Max."

Soon after, Chloe arrived home to a dark, empty, quiet house. Her mother was still working at the diner and would probably be gone all night. As could be expected at a 24 hour Diner. David would be at Blackwell patrolling all night as well, not that Chloe minded him gone.

Sad, and entirely alone, Chloe microwaved a quickly thrown together meal from whatever was left in the fridge, ate it quietly at the diner table and then retired off to her room for the night, just watching TV and smoking up, flipping through all the Christmas programs and not even really paying attention as to what was playing. Her thoughts were mostly on Max and Rachel Amber, remembering them and missing them even more now that it was Christmas, the time to be with friends, family and loved ones.

Many hours later, as she lay in bed, TV and lights now off, she looked up at her ceiling and the moonlight shining in from her window.

"You may have left me here, angry, sad and alone. But I still miss you, Max…"

Chloe rolled over, pulled the covers up and closed her eyes as two tears fell from them and tried to go to sleep. She then exhaled deeply in a sigh, and one word escaped her lips, "Max…" and at the same time, a strange, cold Northward wind rustled the treetops from outside her window and blew swiftly away in that direction.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away in Seattle. Max was already fast asleep, tired from a long evening of greeting family she hadn't seen all year, feasting on a huge family dinner and exhausted from playing with all her little nieces and nephews out in the snow on their front lawn.

Suddenly, a cold wind then blew against her bedroom window and left some white frost gathering all around the window pane.

It seemed to send a chill throughout Max's room as well, as if the glass wasn't even there. Max moaned, tossed and turned over to her side and hugged one of many pillows against her chest.

Even asleep, and while cuddling the pillow, Max said one word in her sleep, "Chloe…"

Some time later, Max slowly awakened. It was the call of nature. But she was still so tired as she groaned aloud. She then grudgingly got out of bed, not even bothering to turn on any lights and made her way to the bathroom, eyes blurry from sleep and completely on auto pilot as she knew the way by heart. She then flicked on the lights and made her way over to the toilet and sat down and began to pee.

She put her head in her hands and groaned, her head hurt and felt really strange as she continued to pee. Could it have been the food or all the exhaustion of spending time with her huge family? Max didn't know. Soon she finished up and pulled up her pants and started to stand up, but as she did, something to her right caught her eye. She gasped as it wasn't something, but someone!

"Chloe?!" She shrieked and backed up a few surprised steps, right into the glass door of a shower, but not hers. Max slide down the shower door as she yelped in pain, a dirty damp pirate towel falling over her head and covering her face.

Max breathed in and out a few times in terror. The shower was supposed to be on the other side of the room? Why was Chloe here? What happened to her moms yellow painted bathroom, decorated with flowers. Why was it so white and ordinary looking?

All these questions raced through Max's head. And with trembling hands she slowly removed the towel from her head and began to slowly climb back up to her feet.

And with great horror, she came to realize that it wasn't Chloe in the bathroom with her, it was a reflection from a large bathroom mirror that had surprised her. Max was looking at herself… In Chloe's body!

Max grasped the sides of her cheeks with her hands, "What the hell is going on?!" She shrieked in Chloe's voice, "I'm freaking blue haired now!"


	2. Chapter 2: The Switch

The sun began to rise on the morning of December 22nd, and Max, in Chloe's body, was curled up on Chloe's bathroom floor, knees tucked right up to her chest, arms wrapped around her knees and she was rocking herself back and forth. Her breathing was quick and quivering.

"W-What the hell is happening?" Max asked aloud, "Is this another messed up evolution of my powers? First I can rewind time, now I can become someone else entirely?!"

Then a thought occurred to Max, "Wait! If I'm here... In Chloe's body... Does that mean that... She's back in Seattle... in my body?!"

Horrified at the thought, Max quickly ran back to Chloe's room and desperately searched for Chloe's phone. Tossing items out of the way, but it wasn't gonna be an easy task.

"How the hell can Chloe find anything in this mess?!" Max complained aloud as she continued to search drawers, under Chloe's bed and under clothes littered all over the floor of Chloe's incredibly messy and unorganized room.

She finally found it in the pair of pants Chloe must've worn that day. She quickly checked the time, it was 7:30 am. "I hope Chloe's awake..." prayed Max as she dialled in her cellphone number, which felt extremely weird to do.

Max paced around Chloe's room, breathing in and out heavily as Chloe's phone continued to ring. She stopped and looked at herself in the reflection of Chloe's big stand up mirror. She tilted her head side to side, just to make sure the reflection of herself in Chloe's body was real... It was.

Finally, the line was picked up, "Hellooooo?" A voice answered cheerfully. Max's heart skipped a beat, her mind blown. It was her own voice!

"Chloe! Chloe Price, is that you?!"

"No, this is Max Caulfield. Who's this?" the voice replied with a slight snicker at the end.

"You're not Max, I am!" Max shouted in Chloe's voice.

"Are you sure about that? Have you looked in the mirror lately? I know I have and I can tell you one thing for certain, I'm Max Caulfield now!" Chloe shouted triumphantly in Max's voice.

"Oh, you evil bitch, you're loving this aren't you, Chloe?" Max asked annoyedly.

"Hella enjoying it, Chloe Price!"

"Chloe, stop! This is serious! What the hell are we going to do about this?!" Max asked worriedly, "I-I can't be you and you can't be me forever! It's-it's just not right!"

"I dunno about that, I could get used to this!" Chloe said in Max's voice. Meanwhile, she was in Max's room, standing in front of a bedroom mirror, and admiring herself in Max's body. She was wearing black leggings and a green and red hand-knitted Christmas sweater with reindeer and Santa's sleigh on the front, "You have a wicked nice house, Max! A huge room all to yourself, your fridge is stocked to the brim with food, all kinds of goodies in the cupboards, and freaking Satellite TV in every room?! You're Hella lucky, Max!" Chloe complimented.

"Chloe, please just help me figure all this out! I mean what the actual hell happened to us?!"

"What's there to figure out?" Chloe asked as she laid back in Max's bed, crossed one leg over the other and munched on a Christmas cookie, "I got my Christmas wish!"

"Your what?!" Max asked in shock, "You wished for this?!"

"Sure did!" Chloe replied excitedly, "When you left, I wish that you could see what kind of situation you actually left me in, and now you can!"

"So... This isn't because of my powers then is it?"

"Oh, That reminds me!" Chloe responded energetically as she said sat back up and swung her legs over the side of Max's bed, "Have you noticed anything... missing at all?"

"What?" Max asked in confusion, then she clued in and slowly raised her right hand while looked at the reflection of herself as Chloe in the mirror. Then, she concentrated and attempted to use her rewind powers... But nothing happened.

"What?! No way! I don't have any powers anymore?!"

"Nope!" Chloe replied, "hang on one second."

Chloe then picked up the plate of cookies from off of Max's bed and then tossed it like a frisbee hard at the nearby wall, shattering it into a dozen pieces. She smiled and then raised her right hand and time began to reverse, the plate reforming, the cookies coming back onto the plate and then spinning backwards as time continued to reverse back. The plate of cookies then settled into place back on the bed in its original position.

"Yes!" Chloe shouted triumphantly as she pumped her fist in victory.

"Yes, what?" Max asked on the other end of the line.

"It seems we switched more than just bodies, I've got your powers too!" Chloe replied excitedly.

"Oh no! Chloe, be careful with my powers, you don't know how dangerous they can be!" Max pleaded urgently.

"Relax! I'm not going to travel back in time or anything. But this really helps me solve one problem; If I'm not 'Maxine' enough to your parents or family, I can just rewind and try again! I bet you've done that hundreds of times with other people, haven't you, Max?"

"Well... That's true, yes..."

Suddenly, Max could hear the front door to Chloe's house open up. Someone was home!

"Oh no! Chloe! Your parents are home! What do I do?!" Max whispered in sheer panic.

"Beats me," Chloe replied plainly, "Guess you'll just have to 'Price' it up with my mom and Step Douch David for now. And remember, you can't simple rewind to get out of awkward moments!"

"Chloe! Help! You can't just leave me here like this!"

"Relax, you've got this!" Chloe said encouragingly, "Just don't do anything that I wouldn't do. And definitely don't do anything that I would do, cuz you'd be pure shit at that and they'd know something was up. But if all else fails, just blame it on the weed they know I smoke or should I say that you smoke, Chloe Price!"

"That's it?! That's all the help you're going to give?"

"Hey, let's just say it's Payback time, little miss Caulfield!"

Just then, there was a knock on the bedroom door, "Chloe? Sweetie, are you awake already? You left the bathroom light on!" said Joyce's voice on the other end of the door.

"Shit! Your mom is here!" Max whispered into the receiver.

"Well, I wish you all the best of luck then! Oh and have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Chloe Price!" And the line clicked and the dial tone followed soon after, leaving Max stunned and unable to believe that Chloe had just hung up on her.

"Is this what abandonment feels like?" Max asked softly as she let go of the phone and it landed against the floor boards loudly.

"Chloe?! Is everything ok? Can you please just answer me already, sweetie! Please can I just come in?" Joyce said as she repeatedly knocked on the bedroom door.

Max's heart raced in fear, but she had to do something, "Uh... Y-yeah, mom, everything's ok! I-I just fell out of bed. Just give me a second."

And Max turned out the lights and quickly climbed back into Chloe's bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. She turned into her side and breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly to calm herself. She had to act, talk and think like Chloe from now on. She then looked toward the door, "O-ok... Mom... You can come in now."

Then slowly, the doorknob began to turn. Max's heart beat so hard that she could hear each thump deeply within her, Chloe's ears, sweat forming on her brow and under her nose. Then slowly, inch by inch, the door began to creak open, light from the hallway spilling into Chloe's dark room, "Chloe?" Joyce's mom asked as she started coming into view, this was it...

"Chloe? Is everything ok? You're certainly up early for a change?" Joyce asked as she strolled over to Chloe's bedside. She was dressed in her waitress uniform and she smelled like home cooking from the two whales diner.

"Yeah, I'm ok, Mom." Max thought about what to say next? What could Chloe have said? "I'm just feeling... Hella sick."

Joyce then knelt down, brushed the hair away from her forehead and lovingly held her forehead against Chloe's. "Hmmm, well you do feel a little warm. And you do look kind of... Off today? Do I need to take you to the doctors? I can take you right now if you need it?"

"Wow, Joyce really loves her daughter..." Max thought to herself. She then shook her head, "No, I think I'll just go back to sleep, Mom. Thanks for asking though... It's Hella sweet of you."

"Alright, sweetie. You rest up and I hope you feel better." Joyce said as she stood back up, turned and headed for the door. "Do you want me to cook you anything before I go to bed?"

"No, you worked hard enough at the diner. I'll be fine. Goodnight, mom."

Joyce smiled, "Goodnight, sweetie and Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas to you too, Mom!"

Joyce then exited the room and closed the door. As she did, Max began to slowly sit upright in bed.

"Joyce didn't notice anything out of the ordinary? Maybe I can do this? Maybe I can get through Christmas time as Chloe Price!" Max thought hopefully!

She also prayed that this holiday magic spell of Chloe's would wear off after the holidays? Because even now, she missed her real family and friends and home in Seattle. She wondered what they were doing now? And would Chloe be able to fool the Caulfield family just as easily?

Lastly, she prayed extra hard that Chloe didn't do anything to embarrass herself or make Max look like a fool in front of her whole family over Christmas Holidays...


End file.
